


A God’s Anger (is enough to defy death)

by LaReinaRoja



Category: Naruto, 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: After he gets his shit together first, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke Needs a Hug (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa deserves better and Sasuke is here to make sure he gets it, Akutagawa is going to love Sasuke like he deserves, Awkward Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs), BAMF Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, BAMF Uchiha Sasuke, But hell if he's going to let two kids who remind him of him and Itachi get mistreated by anyone, Dazai better watch his mouth and hands or Sasuke will end him, Dazai-Typical Suicide References (Bungou Stray Dogs), How Do I Tag, I wanted Akutagawa and Sasuke to interact so here, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Past Character Death, Port Mafia (Bungou Stray Dogs), Port Mafia Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs), Protective Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs), Reincarnation, Sasuke is Atsushi, Sasuke-Atsushi OP for the sake of protecting his new friends/family, Uchiha Sasuke Has Issues, Uchiha Sasuke Needs a Hug, Uchiha Sasuke-centric, Watch my one woman show in making, You better believe Sasuke is going to put the fear of god into the mafia, fuck if i know what i'm doing, the mafia stands no chance against a protective Uchiha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25252597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaReinaRoja/pseuds/LaReinaRoja
Summary: Nakajima Atsushi died at the tender age of seven, still a child whose mouth, when smiling, would reveal a gap-toothed grin with baby teeth as white as milk.He died from a snapped neck, too many shakes from a drunk caretaker, who, once realizing what he had done, smuggled the boy out of the orphanage.Beneath the moon’s light, the drunk man carried the boy to the very outskirts of the orphanage’s grounds, where a river ran alongside. Here, he tossed the boy into the unforgiving river’s currents and watched as he drifted away before returning to his room and bed.Nakajima Atsushi died when he was seven years old, his body tossed into a river for the water to drown and for the fish to eat.Nakajima Atsushi died, but Uchiha Sasukelived.
Relationships: Akutagawa Gin & Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 29
Kudos: 203
Collections: Identity Crisis





	1. Prologue

Nakajima Atsushi died at the tender age of seven, still a child whose mouth, when smiling, would reveal a gap-toothed grin with baby teeth as white as milk. 

He died from a snapped neck, too many shakes from a drunk caretaker, who, once realizing what he had done, smuggled the boy out of the orphanage.

Beneath the moon’s light, the drunk man carried the boy to the very outskirts of the orphanage’s grounds, where a river ran alongside. Here, he tossed the boy into the unforgiving river’s currents and watched as he drifted away before returning to his room and bed.

Nakajima Atsushi died when he was seven years old, his body tossed into a river for the water to drown and for the fish to eat.

Nakajima Atsushi died, but Uchiha Sasuke lived.

Here is how it happens:

In another world, another place, the boy called Uchiha Sasuke found out the truth of his clan’s massacre an hour before his fateful encounter with his brother.

Just that one hour was enough to change the hands of fate.

Instead of wanting the blood of his brother, of Uchiha Itachi’s – of _Nii-san’s, Aniki’s_ – blood, Uchiha Sasuke wanted something else.

He wanted to rest.

He had sold his soul to the devil for power, had abandoned his village and his team, had crushed his dreams of a peaceful life beneath the heel of his foot as he walked towards hell.

Uchiha Sasuke was an empty shell of the boy he had once been – the only thing that had driven him to keep walking was the thought of finally avenging his family, of killing the brother turned kin-slayer and leaving his corpse to rot and his eyes to be plunked by the crows he so loved.

He had wanted only that.

But now, even that goal was unachievable.

_(Uchiha Sasuke was a weak boy.)_

And so, during that fateful battle between brothers, Uchiha Sasuke fought and fought, bled from wounds he could’ve dodged but didn’t, and let his chakra run dry.

In the end, it was a simple shuriken that finished him off before the chakra exhaustion got him, the cruel metal digging into an already bleeding wound on his stomach.

(And if he purposely dug it deeper, if he twisted it until he felt his organs scramble and tear apart beneath his blood-stained skin…well, no one needs to know.)

His last sight was that of his brother – because it was Itachi-nii, the older brother who would always carry him and give him sweets beneath the dining table when their parents were distracted – of his Nii-san running towards him, hands outstretched and eyes wide and so, so afraid.

The Sharingan was truly a gift, because even as he died and his chakra ceased, his clan’s bloodline limit stayed true and strong until the very end. His eyes imprinted his brother’s image and burned it into his mind.

For his dying sight, it wasn’t so bad.

Unknown to him, his eyes changed during his final moments, Sharingan spinning and spinning until they morphed into the fabled Mangekyo Sharingan.

(He had wanted to die, yes, but not like this. His brother may have thrown the shuriken, but it was his hand that dug and twisted it until it killed.)

(For an Uchiha, there is no afterlife for you if you take your own life and forsake the clan’s gods and their gifts.)

(He was going to die, and his soul would never find his clan.)

(It was for the best though, for the Uchiha who couldn’t even avenge the clan and chose to spare the life of the kin-slayer because he was too weak to forget the older brother he once loved – the brother he still loves.)

He felt gentle fingers touch his cheeks for the briefest of moments before his eyes slide shut and his heart stopped.

Uchiha Sasuke died at the tender age of sixteen, still a child whose growth and dreams had stopped on the day his clan died and bled beneath his brother’s blade.

Uchiha Sasuke and Nakajima Atsushi died, one chose suicide and the other was murdered.

Suicide and murder, either way, death is absolute.

Death is – 

_A mere annoyance for the gods of old._

And so, fate twisted and unraveled at the seams. 

Beneath the moon’s light, a child’s body drifts with a river’s current, tiny face upturned to the moon above and eyes closed. A breeze tugs at the white hair even as the fish nibble on the child’s clothes. 

A second passes – 

And golden-violet eyes open, blinking once before they bleed to red, tomoes spinning rapidly even as the boy coughs for breath and struggles to swim to safety.

Nakajima Atsushi died, but Uchiha Sasuke _lived._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…this is a thing now. I discovered Stray Dogs and fell in love with the show and its characters. My favorites are of course Atsushi and Akutagawa and somehow, my crazy brain wanted to give Akutagawa more love and, more importantly, a friend who would understand not being good enough. And who else to be the friend of an emo boy than another emo boy? Thus, here’s probably like the only fic about Akutagawa and Sasuke because I wanted one and couldn’t find one. Let me know what you think! I don’t have a set schedule for updating, but I have so much inspiration right now that updates are very likely to happen for the foreseeable future. Next chapter will definitely have my two boys meeting so look forward to that. Also let me know what you think of this style of writing, I’m trying a different writing style and I don’t know if you’ll get the effect(?) I’m aiming for. Comments would be both appreciated and welcomed~


	2. The Guardian of Yokohama’s Abandoned Children

Yokohama is a strange city, its people unafraid to walk amongst each other for silly little things like visiting friends or going to see a new film in theaters. Even the city’s underworld, as bloody as Sasuke’s discovered it can be, pales in comparison to his former world where shinobi were born and raised to slaughter for the sake of their villages.

There’s no shinobi here, only men who wear the title of “mafia,” with the same bloody determination that children would wear their village’s headband – only men who kill with weapons from afar and not children who kill with jutsu and shuriken until their hands are stained red with the blood of their village’s enemies.

He hates it.

Yokohama is a peaceful city, its people unafraid of the monsters they know lurk in the shadows and Sasuke wonders how they can live their lives without fear – without worrying that one of those monsters might reach their bloody fingers and drag someone they love down into the depths of hell.

He sighs, breathes the scent of freshly brew tea and lets his fingers clutch the small porcelain teacup within his grasp. His eyes ache, the world too strange and too bright for an Uchiha’s delicate eyesight and Sasuke wants to burn everything and scatter its ashes to the sea.

Six months.

Six months living in this world and he longs for the place he left behind – not Konoha, never that godforsaken village, but anywhere else, even Orochimaru’s filthy hideouts would be better than this. The world is too loud, the ceaseless chatter of civilians ever constant that Sasuke’s ears echo with their whispers and laughter long after the sun’s sets and the moon comes out. 

They’re too careless. Too unafraid. 

A frown twists his lips as Sasuke quietly sips his tea and sits in his chosen seat, a corner table inside a teashop that boasts about their pride in serving traditional Japanese teas and sweets. 

If anyone were to look at him, they would see a beautiful teenager, all dark hair and even darker eyes with a scowl that serves to only highlight the teen’s delicate features. 

They would look, but they would not _see_.

In a world where most people spend their lives living in blissful ignorance, even Sasuke’s pitiful genjutsu skills – never a match for Itachi’s, never something that brought pride to the Uchiha clan who had once been known as the masters of both fire and illusions, the messengers of the gods who brought hellfire to their enemies – even pitiful skills such as his were more than enough to cloak his true form from ignorant eyes. 

He looked like himself, like the last Uchiha Konoha once happily called their own except it was nothing but a lie. Beneath the illusion was a child, silver-white hair long and unruly, a single strand of black hair barely touching a pale cheek, and eyes wide and tired, set on a face still round with baby fat. With genjutsu, Sasuke was able to do whatever he liked, and so he hid his real body away, wary of the strange customs of the world he now lived in.

Strange, because people _cared_. 

Sasuke had died, had taken his brother’s shuriken and dug it into his flesh until his organs spilled from his body and the life left his cooling body. He had forsaken his clan’s gods and beliefs and condemned his soul to wander for eternity.

And yet…

Here he was, sipping warm tea and staring at the mindless crowd of people outside the teashop’s window. 

When he first woke up, his neck had ached and his body was chilled to the bone, the flimsy clothing he was wearing completely drenched from the river’s water. He had dragged himself to land, crawled on his hands and knees because there’s a lot of ways he could kill himself, but drowning is not one of them. No Uchiha should ever drown, not when they’re a member of a clan who breathes fire from their lungs just as well as any of the ancient dragons that once served under the gods.

(Shisui-nii had drown.)

(Had thrown himself into the Naka river and let the water douse his flame until his body sank to the bottom, until the bright, smiling boy he had called both brother and cousin returned back to the river’s surface, body already bloated, skin a horrible shade of gray that made his cousin look inhuman – gray skin, a bloated corpse, and two missing eyes.)

(Shisui-nii had drown, Sasuke thinks as he sips his tea, had drown and had his Sharingan stolen – the worst sort of death an Uchiha could ever have, being left to the water’s cruelty without their eyes when they’re a member of a clan who comes from the gods’ fire and who should be returned by the fire of his kin.)

Shisui had drown, and Sasuke was drowning – 

So he crawled through the dirt and choked on his blood, heart beating furiously as he hated himself in that moment that seemed to drag on forever – he had died, had let the murderer of his clan walk away from their fight and still, he was alive. Was still alive even though his neck ached, and his body was chilled to the bone and he was apparently so useless that he couldn’t even die properly.

Sasuke had been so weak that even the Uchiha’s gods had abandoned him to drown, had left him lost in a different world where there’s no shinobi, no villages, nor clans. Instead, there’s people unafraid to walk alongside their city’s monsters, nothing like the civilians he once knew, the weak-hearted civilians who always tried to keep faraway from the affairs of shinobi, to ignore the men, women, and children that would fight and bleed for the home they shared.

People cared here, they cared for the dead bodies that always turn up at the edges of mafia territory, they care and so do the police.

He sighs again, teacup empty and hands clasp together even as he lingers awhile longer within the shop.

Dead bodies are found, they’re taken and shown respect no matter whose body it is and the police try their best to give a name, an identity, to a corpse who’s been left to rot amongst the city’s filth. Sasuke hates to admit it, even to himself, but that’s one thing he admires this place for – unlike him, unlike even Konoha – the kindest of the great hidden villages – unlike both of them, the people of this city are kind, kind enough to give a damn about a corpse instead of simply taking everything you can from it and leaving it to rot and be feasted on by animals. 

People cared here, cared enough for the dead and even more for a lonely child who looked like he had been murdered.

Sasuke’s first day had been disorienting, waking up and nearly drowning before crawling his way to land and discovering his new body. He had been tired, body sore from injuries he couldn’t remember ever getting and chakra so low that he shouldn’t have even been awake, much less able to walk, so he had simply walked towards the nearest town.

He had quickly realized his mistake.

It wasn’t a town, not even a village like Konoha – it was bigger than anything Sasuke had ever encounter, a true city that sprawled across the land with the ocean by its side and buildings that towered over everything. Not even the Hokage monument could hold a candle to the sheer bulk of the buildings. Even as he struggled towards it, the sounds coming from the city rung in his ears, so blaringly loud that he was sure it could wake the dead.

Sasuke was tired and lost, and even resigned to his fate because he kept walking – with his chakra so low that his Sharingan was out of reach, he just wanted to steal some money and find a place to rest. Stealing money wasn’t the problem since there were no shinobi anywhere, just civilians dressed in strange clothes and too busy gazing at something small in their hands. No, stealing funds for himself was never the problem – the problem was that as soon as he showed himself to anyone in charge of an inn, they would all pale and ask questions.

Shaking his head to get rid of his thoughts, Sasuke slips away from the teashop unnoticed, his shinobi training making his footsteps silent and his presence nonexistent. 

It had taken some time, but Sasuke had eventually learned the unspoken rules this place used – most people were civilians, unused to the thought of violence and thoughtlessly kind to others, but especially to children. No wonder the innkeepers he had first encountered were horrified, they likely had never seen a small child walk up to them from seemingly nowhere and calmly ask for a room – and all the while looking like a murder victim.

No, the civilians of this world were too naïve, too ignorant of violence when it wasn’t coming from those annoying phones they seemed to worship so much. Luckily, Sasuke hadn’t needed to curve his shinobi instincts for long since he managed to find the city’s underworld just fine after a few days spent recovering his chakra and making himself presentable to the outside world.

There were no shinobi here, but there is the mafia. Men who traded in blood and death, who killed on orders and never bothered asking why. Not too different from shinobi, but Sasuke loathes the mafia in a way he never hated his old world. Children are still dragged into the fights of adults, are still stolen away under the cover of darkness if they’re pretty enough or if they have those strange abilities the mafia seems obsessed with. 

Children are still denied the right to a childhood if someone decides they’re more useful drowning in the city’s underworld, far away from the civilians’ pampered lives that not only allow, but even expect children to stay children long after their bodies stop growing. He’s seen teenagers, older than even his brother had been when he had murdered their parents, roaming the streets in groups, laughing and complaining about school.

Sasuke had clenched his fists so tightly he had drawn blood with his nails when he first heard that. 

School?

What kind of foolish life is that, to worry about school at the age most shinobi would be suffering from the guilt of killing others their age, the only reason being that they happened to be enemies of the village. When their hands should already be stained beyond all hope, the blood of those they slaughtered dripping from hands scarred from training.

Even now, as he makes his way towards the slums of Yokohama, there’s a painful longing in his chest, right where his heart beats beneath his skin. He wonders what it would be like, to be born and raised with the expectation of simply living and enjoying his childhood, to have the only thing to worry about be school and not have to deal with sleepless nights and the ghosts of the dead.

(Sasuke wonders and knows Itachi would’ve loved such a life.)

(And if he thinks about it long enough, thinks about how his mother was always happiest taking care of their family and how his father would always take his job as the chief of the Konoha police so seriously…well, Sasuke knows in his heart that a life in Yokohama, far removed from its slums and underworld, would’ve been a good life for his family.)

(He doesn’t like to think about it. Hates thinking, wondering, and knowing that his family could’ve been happier as civilians, happier being clan-less and living a life where his mother could’ve taken care of their family without resorting to kunoichi tricks, where his father could’ve been part of Yokohama’s police and spent his days giving corpses’ their names back for the world to mourn…where his brother could’ve experienced a peaceful life, grown old alongside Shisui-nii and done everything a child dreams of.)

Sasuke knows.

But he hates admitting the truth, even to himself.

So he doesn’t.

He hides away from the truth and lets his anger out on the scum of Yokohama’s underworld, the filth that thinks they have the right to steal away children from the city’s light. Shinobi villages may have done the same, may have bred and raised clan kids to protect their villages, but that was normal.

It was expected.

No one expected a child from a clan to not, at the very least, try and become a shinobi. To serve one’s village as a shinobi is what every child dreams of. Even civilian children would dream about becoming the first shinobi of their family.

It was normal.

But not here. Not in Yokohama where children could stay children and never have to train to slaughter their home’s enemies. Here, a child can live and grow old never having to take another person’s life.

It’s strange, Sasuke thinks, as he hunts down a group of mafia men from atop the roofs, how he hates Yokohama but still loves how much value they place on children.

The city is strange, too bright and too loud for any shinobi worth their salt. And yet, Sasuke can acknowledge that Yokohama has the kind of peace the shinobi world could only ever dream of.

His skin itches even as he thinks this, the annoying ability this body had before he even arrived irritating his thoughts and causing his eyes to bleed to red. It annoys him, how he can’t seem to control the power without straining his body but in the end, it’s still a useful ability to have. He uses his Sharingan for mostly genjutsu nowadays, but whenever he decides to play with the so-called mafia men, he lets the beast out to hunt down his prey.

His breathing slows, his genjutsu fading away and leaving a small white-haired boy to lurk atop a roof as his eyes take in a common sight found in the slums. 

There’s a boy and girl, both doing their best to keep some distance between them and a group of men who bare down on them with guns in hand and smirks on thin lips. The sun’s last afternoon rays shine upon the scene, dying both men and children red with the fading rays of light. The buildings, as worn and old as they are, are still in good enough shape to stand tall and strong, casting long shadows down towards the dead-end alleyway the children had been cornered into.

Even as Sasuke quietly transforms, he can’t help but notice and approve of the boy’s spirit. Cornered as he is, the boy has a scowl on his face, his thread-bare clothes hanging limply from his thin form and somehow creating a shadow-like beast that pools around both him and the girl. Though quite beast-like, the boy’s ability seems to be focused more on protecting the girl and even as a tiger, Sasuke can still think about how easily it would be for the men to simply shoot the boy straight in the head.

No sooner had he thought that, and there’s movement below.

A gun is raised, trigger push and the sound of a bullet being shot eerily echoes inside the alleyway.

Sasuke tenses, his body long and limber, and his red eyes gleam as he jumps straight down. One paw swipes the bullet midair, hitting it to the ground even as Sasuke turns and jumps onto the coward who had dared to fire the first shot. 

A scream is cruelly cut midway, a single bite to the throat enough to silence him and then Sasuke is roaring and attacking the other two men whose hands tremble to hold even their guns. They’re dead before they even manage to lift their guns towards Sasuke.

Their screams linger for a moment, as short as they were, they echo even after the men who had made them died beneath his teeth.

Satisficed, Sasuke languidly turns around to face the two children, unmindful of the blood that stains his white fur. Instead of being terrified, the two kids are staring at him in awe, smiles stretching their pale and dirty faces as their eyes seemed to sparkle with an innocent sort of joy most children would reserve for a sweet treat and not for a blood-stained tiger who had just murdered three men right in front of them.

The boy lets his shadow beast retreat beneath his clothes, and his smile seems to shine even brighter (and for a moment, Sasuke remembers a blond-haired boy who had once smiled at him like that, who had looked at Sasuke and seen someone worth smiling to).

He points at him, his other hand pulling the girl along with him as he steps closer to Sasuke.

“Gin! I told you the tiger was real! Look, you see him too, right?”

The girl rolls her eyes even as she follows the boy until they’re barely inches from Sasuke’s bloody snout. 

“Nii-san, I’m not dumb. I can see the tiger just fine.” Here, the girl pauses briefly to twirl her hair around her fingers. “I just can’t believe your stupid plan worked.”

Unsettled, Sasuke glares at the pair. He’s hopes they take the hint and leave.

They don’t.

Instead, the boy stares straight into Sasuke’s red eyes, his free hand clenched into a tight fist and his mouth opens.

“I’m Akutagawa Ryuunosuke! I’ve been searching for you tiger! The other kids say you help them when they’re in trouble and now I know they weren’t lying,”

Akutagawa pauses, his face flushed red with determination and not an ounce of fear (Sasuke is too shocked to react, but somehow, he knows he won’t like what comes next).

He’s right.

The boy lets go of his sister’s hand and bows towards him, towards Sasuke who wasn’t even a human at the moment.

“So please, guardian of Yokohama’s abandoned children! Please teach me how to protect my sister – they say you’re intelligent, that you can understand what we say – I don’t care if you’re an animal, so please, let me learn from you!”

Still in shock, Sasuke simply stares at the boy who hasn’t stood up from his bow.

(In the corner of his mind, he can’t help but think Naruto must be laughing at him.)

(“That’s what you get, bastard! Leaving Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei to mourn your dumbass self. Now take responsibility of your new student and maybe we’ll forgive you. Just maybe though.”)

(Sasuke hates Naruto, and he hates him even more when he starts making sense.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s a wrap! Thank you all for reading and commenting. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Sasuke’s latest adventure in Yokohama and his meeting with Akutagawa and Gin. If the siblings seem out of character, it’s because a) they’re around the same age as Sasuke, b) haven’t completely lost hope even while living in the slums, and c) actively planned their encounter with tiger!Sasuke for reasons. Sasuke, as much as he would hate to admit, has gotten rather popular among the children in the slums. Think of him as an urban legend the kids tell each other, that when you feel like you have no escape from the Port Mafia, pray and the guardian of Yokohama’s slums might appear to save you. Sasuke doesn’t have a single subtle bone in his body ‘cause all Uchiha are dramatic af. Sorry if there’s any mistakes, I typed this up and just posted it. Will check for mistakes later. See you all next time~


	3. Of New Homes and Spider Lilies

The sun had well and truly faded from sight, the sky darkening to welcome the moon and stars as Sasuke stood silently in front of the two children he had helped only moments before. The boy’s – Ryuunosuke’s – proclamation, loud and unapologetic, lingers in the air between the two groups even as the Uchiha did his best to ignore the ghosts he saw when looking at them.

He fails.

They’re siblings – a brother and his sister, both too young and too old at the same time. They stand there, the boy still kneeling towards him and his sister standing behind him even as they continue to stay in front of a beast that has blood dripping from its teeth and claws. Sasuke knows that mulish tilt of the boy’s head – hidden as it is within the boy’s bow – and knows what the bitter scowl that curls thin lips downwards means.

It’s the same face he had once had, back before the massacre, when he truly had been a child stubborn enough to beg for Itachi’s time and attention and unwilling to let anything or anyone get in his way.

It’s the face of a child who won’t accept no for an answer.

Sighing inwardly, Sasuke turns around and settles on the ground before looking back at the siblings. He chuffs quietly, head gently motioning towards his back.

Ryuunosuke’s scowl disappears, his mouth gaining a distinctively smug air as he slowly gets up from the ground and tugs at his sister to get onto their new ride. It should be degrading to Sasuke, for someone who has always been too prideful, to lower himself for anyone to use him as a means of transportation. 

It should be degrading.

It isn’t.

He feels small hands clutch at his fur, tiny bodies carefully climbing up onto his back and warm breathes licking at his neck. It reminds him of before, before he left Konoha and still lived in his lonely compound. The houses were too empty, the silence nearly unbearable…but it had been alright. Because sometimes, when the nights seemed to stretch for an eternity, and he was stuck shivering beneath his parent’s covers…sometimes the strays came. 

Fully grown cats with their kittens would come and roam the compound, their meows a sweet little melody that would lull Sasuke to sleep. They would roam the streets, visit all the empty houses where once they had been greeted with soft touches and eventually, they would make their way to Sasuke’s house. Their paws gently hitting the wooden floorboards and their flickering tails disturbing the dust layering every inch of his house, they would come and make themselves at home in an empty house with an even emptier boy.

They would come, cats and their kittens, and make their way through a clan compound Konoha had long left behind until they would reach him. Even now, a whole world away, Sasuke still feels their tiny bodies, soft fur that would warm his body the same way his mother’s hugs once did. They would lay on him, casually jumping on his bed and curling around his cold body, their claws tucked away and their throats rumbling with sweet purrs. 

Sometimes, on the nights where he couldn’t stop himself from crying, he would feel their rough little tongues on his cheeks, licking away his tears and purring for him until Sasuke fell asleep.

As he carefully stands up, the weight of two shivering children upon his back feels heavier than anything Sasuke’s ever carried. Thin fingers clutch at his fur as the streets give way to open land, the grass beneath his paws shades of yellow that crumbled with his weight. The moon shone high in the sky, its silver moonlight following their journey from Yokohama to the farmlands, and from the farmlands to the forest where the roads ceased, and the trees rose to greet them. 

The woods echoed with the sounds of animals, of owls in midflight and of snakes slithering amongst the grass. And so they made their way until the trees gave way to a clearing tucked away from civilization and hidden deep within the forest’s bosom. A house stood silently within, its gates sturdy and welcoming with detailed carvings of red-and-white fans. 

Without breaking his stride, Sasuke simply leaps across the closed gates, the two children crying out in surprise and roughly tugging at his fur in fright before they land in a beautiful courtyard. The tiger lands amidst a sea of red, spider lilies blooming between his legs and their petals gentle touches upon his fur. 

A sea of red, of spider lilies and of kochia stretching around the towering house like an ever-burning fire that welcomes its master home. Sasuke lowers himself down to ground, careful to not trample the blooming flowers with his weight. He feels the slide of tiny bodies, hears the soft thuds of feet hitting the ground. He watches the two children, watches as they seem to come to life within his garden as Gin giggles at the softness beneath her feet and Ryuunosuke smiles at his sister’s happiness.

There’s peace in his garden that Sasuke has never felt before, the kind of peace he hasn’t felt since the days he would spend helping his mother with her garden, when he would sit right next to her and listen to her hums and touch the blooming flowers she so loved to grow and give to his father.

(Uchiha Fugaku was known as a cold man, a man who rarely smiled and who laughed even less. But that’s not true, not really. To Sasuke, his father was a stern man, yes, but a man who always had a smile for his wife, a smile for his eldest, and a smile for even him, for Sasuke.)

(His father had loved his mother dearly, and he had loved the children they had together just as much. But he was a difficult man to understand and Sasuke had never been sure whether he measured up to anything in his father’s eyes. But Sasuke never questioned his love – never wondered if his father truly loved their family because why would he?)

(Uchiha Fugaku was known as a cold man to everyone who wasn’t his family. But how can a man be cold, Sasuke wonders, when he had seen him smile so gently, so lovingly at the spider lilies his wife would grow for him.)

_“Kaa-san, why do you give Tou-san flowers?”_

_“Why? Because I love him Sasuke-chan, just like I love you and Itachi.”_

_“But why these flowers? Obaa-san told me these are sad flowers, and you shouldn’t give them to people! Give Tou-san happy flowers.”_

_“You’re being silly! These aren’t sad flowers, not to me and not to your father. Do you want me to tell you why?”_

_“Uh! Obaa-san sells flowers so she must be right. These are sad flowers, not happy flowers Kaa-san.”_

_“Maybe for other people, but for your father and me, these are happy flowers. When I give these flowers to him, I’m telling him that when our time comes, we’ll find each other again. So all he has to do is look for the red spider lilies and he’ll find me. Other people are afraid to find these flowers, but not us. These flowers will bring us together no matter where we are.”_

_“…So they’re good flowers? If they can bring you and Tou-san together…”_

_“Yes, they’re good. So don’t forget to plant some spider lilies when you’re older Sasuke-chan! If you do, your Tou-san and me will always find you. No matter where you are,”_

_“Hai! I’ll plant so many you won’t ever forget where I am!”_

There’s an itch beneath his skin and a sting within his eyes and Sasuke knows his time is nearly up, but still he lays down amongst the red spider lilies and watches the two children play beneath the moon. He wonders if they’re here, if his father and mother have found him even a death and world away from home. Wherever they are, do they see the red spider lilies he grew for them? Did they find him?

He hopes and hopes but doesn’t truly know.

His limbs ache and so he lets go of his transformation, lets the moon’s rays wash over him and turn fur back into pale flesh, claws to fingernails, deadly fangs into straight teeth. There’s a cool breeze that flows through the garden, the wind ruffling his silver hair and stirring petals into the air as he carefully stands up, blinking his gold-purple eyes and staring straight at two shocked faces, slacked jaws with a hint of red on their cheeks.

Ryuunosuke recovers first, his cheeks growing more and more red the longer he stares at Sasuke. “Y-you! You’re human! You’re a child! Like us!”

Sasuke quirks a single eyebrow at him, his head tilting to the side in confusion. “Yes? Please don’t tell me you were serious about learning from an animal,”

The closer he looks, the more certain he is. Sasuke can’t help but laugh, the sound surprisingly sweet from someone as broken as himself. “You did! Kami-sama, you really did think you were going to learn from a tiger. How does that even make sense to you?”

The child snarls, lips visibly forming a pout even as his younger sister tries to hide her giggles behind her hand. “Nii-san, you have to admit that it sounds pretty funny. And kind of sad.”

Ryuunosuke quickly pounces on Gin, cheeks flushed so red Sasuke was genuinely worried he was going to fail at basic child-caring not even minutes after arriving home. “Be quiet Gin, of course I didn’t expect to learn from a tiger…but I didn’t expect that Yokohama’s guardian would be such a tiny boy! Look at him Gin, he can’t be any older than us,”

Sasuke feels insulted at the twin looks of disbelief once that statement sinks in. “Oh? What’s that? You don’t want my help?”

He slowly turns around and starts walking to the front door of his house. “Then I guess I don’t need to worry about you two. Have fun.” So saying, Sasuke deliberately ignores the panicked shrieks behind him even as he lets his two tagalongs catch up to him.

Gin is the one to break the silence, her words quiet, but with a hint of awe. “Is this really your house? It’s so…big. And pretty, like your garden.”

He hums in response and wonders if it really was a big house. Sasuke had modeled it after his childhood home, the house a traditional minka that had the Uchiha clan’s fan etched onto its gates and the tatami mat flooring he grew up with. Though it was meant to resemble his old home, Sasuke still added the modern comforts he liked and even included the ones he disliked (having computers may make him murderous, but they were wonderful devices to use for information). As he slides the door open and motions for Gin and Ryuunosuke to remove their shoes, he notices how empty the house feels with only the sounds of their shoes hitting the genkan. He shakes his head, unwilling to follow that line of thought any further.

“As of today, consider this your home as well,” Sasuke feels the flush on his cheeks as he says the words and decidedly ignores it. “You’re the first – and only – people I’ve ever invited here, so take care not to mess anything up unless you’re willing to clean.”

If Sasuke had bothered to meet the eyes of his new housemates, he would have seen the look of awe and hope his words drew from the siblings. Ryuunosuke clears his throat and Sasuke’s eyes snap to him. The boy’s eyes are wide, his face scrunched up with too many emotions for Sasuke to ever hope to understand. “Thank you for this. For taking me seriously and for taking us to your home. I won’t let you regret it.” As soon as the words are out of his mouth, he and Gin bow, their hair covering their faces from view and hiding the tears that slipped from their eyes.

Shit, is what Sasuke thinks as he stares at the kneeling pair before him. Why do I keep making them bow at me?!

From the corner of his eyes, he catches a glimpse of Sakura, her pink hair a bright beacon in the dark house.

(“Sasuke-kun, do you really not know? You’re offering them a home, a place to come back to at the end of a long day and a place where they can rest.”)

Sakura sighs, her green eyes bright with tears that only make Sasuke feel worst. He’s dead and even still, Sakura manages to make him feel useless while still giving him advice. She was the only one on Team 7 to have had an actual childhood, so it wasn’t uncommon for her to cry for their fucked-up lives whenever it would become the topic of discussion.

(“Don’t you remember? You once let Naruto stay with you…before you left. He never forgot. Even after you were gone and Shikamaru and the others said you were a lost cause, Naruto never forgot about the kind boy who once gave him a place to stay.”)

Sasuke stares at her, her ghostly presence a mere wisp of the girl he had shared a team with. The siblings are still kneeling, and Sasuke wonders what he’s meant to do.

A cool hand touches his face and Sakura is suddenly there, her lips whispering a final piece of advice before she disappears into the darkness of his house.

(“You know what to do, Sasuke-kun, deep down, you know. You left Naruto behind, so don’t leave these two. They’re children in the way neither you or Naruto or even Sensei ever got to be. So just be there for them. Protect them and teach them. Give them the home you lost but still yearn to have,”)

He blinks his eyes and lets his shoulders slump down. Slowly, Sasuke kneels down and reaches a hand to touch Ryuunosuke’s chin, tilting it up (not by much, a part of Sasuke notes sourly, his new body is ridiculously small and Ryuunosuke, even as a starved child from the slums, still manages to tower over him when standing). “You won’t ever make me regret it,” he says, tone soft, “It was my choice to bring you and your sister here.”

Sasuke smiles at him (and later, once they’re all in bed, Sasuke will wonder why smiling comes so easily whenever he’s in his real body) while his other hand guides Gin’s face up from her deep bow. “Believe it or not, you two remind me of my brother and me. You were so sure of yourself, willing to bow to an animal for the sake of your sister and I…”

He stops for a moment, his eyes flashing a deep crimson that only managed to fluster the pair of siblings even more. “Well, I thought that was brave of you. I can see that you love deeply and that’s a good quality to have. So officially, I want to welcome you into your new home.”

The moon peaks in through the large windows, shining directly on Sasuke and casting him in an eternal glow of silver. His lips quirk up, a glimmer of amusement dancing in his golden eyes hued with violet. “Though you might want to work on your manners Ryuunosuke. You followed a cat home without even asking for a name, how shameful.”

Ryuunosuke turns red and Gin sighs in disbelief (her brother can’t have seriously forgotten they never asked for their savior’s name, right?). “W-well, you never introduced yourself! You’re the one who doesn’t have any manners, not me.”

So saying, Ryuunosuke turns his head away and tries to will away the redness of his cheeks. Sasuke shakes his head and wonders if he ever acted like that. He can’t remember anymore.

“Hmm, true I guess. I haven’t talked with someone so much in a long while,” Sasuke tugs at the two and pulls them to their feet. He leads them further into the house, pass the kitchen and living room before he suddenly stops and turns around to stare at them, a wild look in his eyes. “Wait! Before anything else, are you hungry? Do you want something to drink?”

Not even ten minutes in and Sasuke was already failing, even with Sakura’s advice. Of course they’re hungry, they lived in the slums for kami-sama’s sake, Sasuke thinks, and before he realizes it, he has tugged the two into his kitchen, left them to sit comfortably on soft cushions as he quickly made tea and warmed up some miso soup he had left in his refrigerator. 

“It’s not much, I know, but I wasn’t expecting anyone to ever come here,” Sasuke says as he sees the pair devour his meager meal and he feels guilty for letting his refrigerator get so empty he only has tea and miso soup. 

Ryuunosuke only murmurs a short, “it’s fine,” while Gin holds her teacup with both hands, her eyes suspiciously bright as she feels the warmth of the tea fill her belly. 

Sasuke lets the two eat in peace, his mind already making plans for tomorrow. He can’t leave the house while they’re still so weak, so he’ll send a clone out for groceries while clothes shopping will have to wait until later in the day. Sasuke’s pretty sure that he has some clothes that would fit them for now. He looks at them from beneath his bangs, taking in the painfully thin frames and hollowed cheeks and feels overwhelmed at the sight they make. 

It’s like looking at a mirror, a horrible mirror that reminds him of the days after the massacre when he would wander throughout the entire Uchiha compound, a little boy looking for any sign of life in a place devoid of it. He didn’t eat after leaving the hospital, could barely stand the sight or smell of food and let himself slowly starve.

(There was a part of himself that had wanted to die, that wanted to starve until he was little more than hollow bones and gaunt skin so that the crows could peck at him. He wanted to disappear, wanted so very much to join his clan in the afterlife because it would’ve been mercy.)

(For all that Itachi had been kind, he had never been merciful. A shinobi never has any mercy for their enemies. Itachi had been no different.)

Sasuke lets his hands fall into his lap, the only sounds heard are the frantic slurping of soup and tea in front of him. With barely a thought, he forms the signs for a kage bunshin, directs his chakra and lets it form a clone upstairs in the bathroom. The sound of running water breaks the calm atmosphere in the kitchen and Sasuke stands up, motioning for Ryuunosuke and Gin to leave their empty dishes on the table.

He gently pushes them up the stairs, their bones paper-thin beneath his fingers. “There’s a bath already waiting for you two. Lucky for you, there’s two bathrooms in the house, so you won’t have to wait.”

Sasuke leads Gin into the first bathroom, the heat from the water already making the room warm and inviting. “There’s some clothes you can wear for tonight, nothing special, but they’ll do. Take your time and enjoy yourself.” He leaves her to it, the last glimpse Sasuke catches of the girl is her wide-eyed look of excitement before the door slides shut. 

Ryuunosuke is quiet beneath his hands, his shoulders stiff. Sasuke wonders why, but decides it doesn’t matter. He stops them in front of another bathroom, the heat already escaping through the slight opening of the door and warming their cold limbs. “And here’s your bathroom. Clothes are already there, so have fun.”

He watches Ryuunosuke’s startle, his arms reaching for the door before he stops and simply stares at it with blank eyes. The boy turns to look at him, his mouth twisting until he shakes his head and turns away, the thud of the bathroom door sliding shut echoing throughout the hallway. Sasuke turns to go, his eyes wandering to the night sky outside the hallway’s glass window. 

The moon watches over him and Sasuke wonders if he’ll see Sakura again before the night is over. He could use her advice, he could use anything really, because he literally doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore. He hasn’t taken care of children since he did D-rank missions with Team 7 and even then, he had let Sakura and Naruto handle those brats. 

“Feed them, bathe them, give them clothes…give them rooms?” He whispers to himself before he nods decisively. That sounds about right, he thinks, because that’s what Garuda did for him when he reversed summoned himself to his realm. The hawk had been more than a little confused why a random human popped right into his home, but once the confusion had cleared up, Garuda had tested him and welcomed him as his new summoner. He had been a much better host than Manda ever was so Sasuke’s pretty sure he can’t go wrong by following his summon’s example.

Speaking of which, he’ll have to have a talk with both Garuda and Aoda once Ryuunosuke and Gin were sleeping. It wouldn’t be wise to leave them in the dark about the two new additions to their home. Those two were far too invested in his life and Sasuke hopes that maybe with this, they’ll finally stop nagging him to go out more and talk with people. What did a hawk and a snake know about socializing? Sasuke’s more than content with staying in his house and leaving only for supplies and to hunt down some mafia bastards. 

He had never been the most outgoing person, not since Itachi had killed the clan and left him to rot in an empty compound. But now…now he has to socialize, has to deal with all those annoying nuances that comes with living with someone else when he hasn’t had to deal with anyone since he left Orochimaru’s hideout with Team Hebi.

Maybe asking Garuda and Aoda for advice wouldn’t be so bad, Sasuke ponders as he makes his way back down the stairs and to the living room. They have to deal with unruly housemates all the time, Aoda is always complaining about the younger snakes who aren’t afraid to slither down their leader’s scales and Garuda is always sighing over the newest chicks who pluck at his feathers for entertainment.

Ryuunosuke and Gin can’t be as bad as that, can they?

Sasuke can’t help but shiver in dread at the thought and Naruto’s loud voice rings in his ears. 

(“They’re kids Sasuke-teme! Kids who you’re going to take care of and train and raise. Hope you enjoyed your nice and quiet life while you could. Can’t wait to see you be a sensei. Better hope they don’t treat you like you treated poor Kakashi-sensei!”)

Maybe he should of thought this through before he brought them home. But then he remembers them, remembers Ryuunosuke’s stubbornness and his sheer gall and he knows that he would’ve done the same thing no matter what. Sasuke closes his eyes and leans back into the sofa. There’s a first time for everything. And surely, he can’t do any worse than Kakashi, right?

-

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke had lived most of his life an orphan, his younger sister the only person left from their family after their parents died and left them to survive in the slums. The world wasn’t kind and the people in it were even less so. At least, that’s what he had thought until today.

Until the day his crazy (and slightly desperate, he can admit to himself) plan worked and brought him his hopes and dreams in the form of a bloody beast with eyes the same color as the blood it spilled. He had thought it was a fevered dream, a remnant of his sickness that had left him coughing and wheezing for breath in their little shack for a week before the fateful encounter.

But it wasn’t.

The rumors, the whispers all the slum kids had murmured beneath their breathes with hopeful eyes, they were all so painfully real and the tiger even more real. Ryuunosuke hadn’t fully believed it could be true, not until he was staring stare at a pair of gleaming eyes, the dead bodies of three men beneath the beast’s limbs. He had never seen anything more beautiful in the slums. With the dying autumn sun setting their surroundings aglow, the fading sunlight highlighted the tiger’s white fur, tinged it with red and gave it a glimmer. It truly looked like a mystical guardian in that moment, despite (or maybe even _because_ of) the blood dripping from its maw and claws. 

Gin had been shaking slightly, her small hands clutching at a small pocketknife they had stolen a few weeks back. Gin had been afraid, but not him. He had convinced her to help him find the so-called guardian of the slums, but she wasn’t sold on the idea of him demanding lessons from it.

_“It’s a myth Nii-san! And even if it’s not, they say it’s a tiger, an animal! How can you learn from something that isn’t even human?”_

_”Let me worry about that, Gin. All you have to do is help me find it. I’ll do the rest. Just trust me, okay?”_

_”Okay, but I’ll kill it if it tries anything. You better use Rashoumon in case we get attacked.”_

In the end, both Gin’s knife and Rashoumon weren’t needed. The tiger had appeared out of nowhere, leaping down from the sky and killing the three mafiosos without wasting a single movement before it had simply stared at them, a curious gleam in its wicked eyes. As he stared back at their savior, Ryuunosuke saw the vast intelligence in its bright eyes, more intelligence than he saw in most people’s eyes and knew that he had made the right choice in seeking it out.

When he bows and kneels before it, he isn’t ashamed of himself. The tiger is more than a simple animal, more than a mindless beast. And now, as he sits in a clean bathtub and scrubs his skin with soap, Ryuunosuke is smug in the knowledge that he’s made the best decision in his entire life.

It still feels like a dream, even with the feeling of shampoo running through his hair and the scent of mint on his skin. Gin must be having the time of her life, he thinks as he stares out of the only window in the room, to have a bath after so long and even have clean clothes to wear. They hadn’t had this since the day their parents died. The slums are a cruel place to live in, the people there willing to attack and kill you for any little thing if it means making their own lives easier. Ryuunosuke’s killed many a stupid person who had dared to steal from him and Gin, but even with Rashoumon, he had never been able to truly give Gin the life she deserved.

But now…it’s different.

They have a home now, as strange as it is to think about, they do. They’ve been taken from the slums, fed warm soup and even warmer tea (and though Ryuunosuke will never say it out loud, he thinks his new favorite dish from now on will be miso soup and green tea – miso soup and green tea because that’s the first warm meal he’s eaten in years that’s been given freely to him). 

He sighs happily, the dirt and grim draining away as he stands up and carefully dries himself with the softest towel he’s ever held. The clothes are even softer than the towel, folded so precisely that he’s almost afraid to unfold them. It’s a silly thought, but he wonders if it really is all a beautiful dream. The clothes hang loosely from his body, too big for some reason when the only person who used to live here by themselves was a boy tinier than Ryuunosuke. He leaves the bathroom, the warm steam slipping into the hall where Gin is waiting for him, her dark hair wet and curling at the edges from her bath.

Her cheeks are flushed red from the heat and there’s a small smile dancing on her lips, a spark of happiness Ryuunosuke rarely saw back in their shack. His sister is clean, has food in her stomach and comfortable clothes to wear and he’s never been so proud of himself for seizing such a wonderful chance.

She pulls him along the hall, pass the bathroom she used and towards an open door that leads to a large room. There’s a huge bed in the middle of the room, a dresser right across from it with a television perched on top of it. And there, standing next to the bed and fluffing up the pillows on it, is their savior (who, annoyingly enough, hasn’t introduced himself to them). His silver hair gleams with the moonlight, as if the night is setting him aglow to show everyone else that the tiny boy is something more than human. He had looked like that in the garden too, Ryuunosuke muses to himself as he lets Gin lead him towards the bed.

He had looked like a god as he transformed from tiger to boy and Ryuunosuke’s breath had nearly stopped because there was no way their savior could be someone so pretty, someone so small but so strong in the way he can only dream of being one day. He lets himself be pulled into the bed, gentle hands brushing his hair aside even as Ryuunosuke’s eyes stared up at the only person who’s ever been kind to his sister and him since their parents’ death.

Sleep drags him down, and the last thing he sees is those gleaming eyes, gold and purple looking at him with such softness that even the towel and clothes he’s touched wouldn’t compare. He’s lulled into a peaceful dream, one hand holding Gin’s and his whole body warm underneath the thick covers of the bed.

Ryuunosuke dreams sweetly that night, dreams of a long ride on a tiger’s back with the grass beneath him and the night sky above him. Dreams of leaping into a sea of red, of watching Gin laugh and dance between blooming spider lilies and bursting kochia, of watching a tiger become a boy with hair as white as winter’s first snow. He dreams of kind hands and an even kinder smile and knows that whatever may come in the future, he’ll never let the stupidly kind tiger boy regret his decision. Ryuunosuke has found a home for himself and he’ll kill anyone who dares to threaten it.

And so he dreams, and so he vows.

To never let the scum of the slums or of the mafia get the chance to touch the pretty tiger boy who’s given him so much. 

He’ll protect his savior until the very end.

And so he dreams, and so he vows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all she wrote! But for real, thank you all so much for the support, for the kudos and comments and bookmarks. I’ve been meaning to get around to answering all of your lovely comments, so once I get a good night’s rest and finish recovering from my fever (nothing serious! I have a pretty weak immune system so this is very common, sorry about the wait for chapter 3) I’ll finally respond to you guys. Please let me know what you think about the story! I hope I’ve managed to continue the tone I established in the first two chapters – this story is going to be very focused on character introspection and the way I write it will hopefully lend itself to this. For those of you wanting to get to the action, I plan on introducing the first “real” arc by chapter 6 or 7, I just want to set the stage for all the events to come. I’m curious to see what you guys think will happen, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment with your thoughts! Please note this is currently unedited, so any mistakes you see, feel free to point out. Have a lovely day~
> 
> P.S. – There’s a reason why Sasuke hasn’t introduced himself and it’s pretty important later on, so yeah, that’s why even a whole chapter later and Akutagawa still doesn’t know the name of the pretty tiger boy who saved him. Speaking of which, let me know what you think of Akutagawa’s POV, I had trouble writing his because technically, he’s like 9/10 years at moment but he’s still someone who’s very mature for his age considering the kind of shit he sees and does in the slums. As for Sasuke, I hope I’ve conveyed how confused he is at the moment. He’s both Sasuke and Atsushi, but he hasn’t really accepted that fact. Whenever he’s under genjutsu or when he’s thinking to himself, he’s very much Uchiha Sasuke, but when he’s speaking to other people or when he’s not hiding under genjutsu, he’s a strange mixture of Sasuke and Atsushi, a mix of Sasuke’s solemn nature and Atsushi’s kinder one. Though in a way, Sasuke was a pretty gentle soul when he was a kid, before all the shit he went through. Kid Sasuke was literally the sweetest and seeing what happens to him has always broken my heart.


End file.
